Lin Wan squeezed her eyes shut, burying her pale face deep into her knees. Her entire body was shaking so hard that the thin straw mattress beneath her was rustling loudly in the quiet room.

Her teeth were chattering, and cold sweat was pouring down her neck, making the black mark sting with a dull heat.

"Weiwei," Lin Wan whispered inside her head, her voice cracking with a deep, hopeless sorrow. "Is there any way out? Any system function left? Please."

[I am sorry, host...] Weiwei’s voice was barely a faint echo, completely suppressed and muffled by the massive, suffocating royal pressure that was currently leaking through the floorboards of the room. [His sovereign domain has completely locked down this entire building. Every spatial line is frozen. My system functions are locked behind an administrative block. I can’t even open the basic inventory box. He... he is right outside the door.]

The heavy footsteps finally reached the third-floor hallway.

*Click. Click.*

The heavy leather boots walked down the narrow, dark corridor, stopping precisely right in front of her small wooden door.

For three long, agonizing seconds, there was absolute silence. Lin Wan forgot how to breathe, her dark eyes wide with terror as she stared at the rusty iron bolt of the lock through the darkness.

*SNAP!*

With a tiny, effortless wave of energy from the outside, the rusty iron lock didn’t just break—it shattered into a hundred tiny gray metal splinters that rained onto the wooden floorboards like sand.

The small wooden door swung open with a slow, heavy groan.

Cassian stood in the narrow doorway.

The musty air inside the tiny attic room was instantly replaced by his cold, intoxicating, and suffocating dark royal aura.

He looked absolutely towering, his broad shoulders completely filling the narrow frame of the doorway, his head almost touching the sloped wooden ceiling.

He was still wearing his magnificent gold-embroidered imperial robes of deep crimson, but the silk along his broad chest and sleeves was heavily stained with splinters of dark, dry royal blood from the palace gates. His long dark hair was slightly messy, falling over his sharp, aristocratic face like a dark frame.

But it was his eyes that pinned Lin Wan to the wall. His slitted golden eyes were glowing like molten gold in the dim light of the attic, burning with a dark, deeply wicked satisfaction that made her feel completely naked under his gaze.

"Your attic is very small, my little buyer," Cassian spoke, his voice a deep, smooth purr that vibrated directly inside her chest like a heavy drum.

He stepped inside the small room, his massive body forcing him to lean his head slightly beneath the low wood beams.

He looked around the bare room, his golden eyes scanning the dirty wooden basin and the cracked mirror on the wall, before finally locking straight onto her small, shivering form on the bed.

"Did you enjoy your three days of freedom?" he asked softly, a cruel, beautiful smile spreading across his breathtakingly handsome lips.

Lin Wan backed up until her spine hit the cold stone wall behind the mattress. She clutched the thin blanket against her chest, her voice shaking violently as she stared up into his golden eyes. "You... you knew the whole time. You knew I was here since the first day."

Cassian let out a soft, low chuckle, a deeply addictive sound that sent a sharp wave of heat straight to her burning mark. He walked over to the small wooden chair by the table, sitting down casually as if he were sitting on his own royal throne.

"Of course I knew, little female," Cassian murmured, his golden eyes narrowing into thin slits as he traced her features with his gaze. "Did you really think a tiny, delicate thing like you could hide her scent from a pure blood Manticore? Your sweet jasmine pheromones have been burning inside my nose since the very second your soft boots crossed my border gates."

Lin Wan’s eyes went wide with realization. "Then why? Why did you let me stay in this filthy place? Why did you let me work in that kitchen if you were just going to come for me anyway?"

Cassian raised his large hand, looking at the dry royal blood coating his sharp fingernails with a look of pure, heartless indifference.

"Because I had a house to clean, my little master," he whispered, his golden eyes flicking back to her face with a lethal, possessive fire. "My brothers were loud, and they required my full attention to slaughter. I did not want to rush our reunion. I wanted to ensure that when I finally came down to collect you... my hands would be completely free."

He stood up from the wooden chair, moving with a predatory speed that Lin Wan’s eyes couldn’t even follow. Within a single fraction of a second, his massive body was towering over her bed, his dark shadow completely swallowing her small frame against the wall.

"Now," Cassian whispered, leaning down until his lips were just inches away from her ear, his sharp white teeth lightly brushing against her sensitive skin. "My hands are entirely free. And I believe it is time to settle our account."

The narrow wooden staircase of ’The Drunken Goat Tavern’ had never felt so long, so cold, or so terrifying.

Lin Wan walked down the steps one by one, her old leather boots making a faint, hollow clicking sound against the worn wood.

*Click.*

*Click.*

Her hands were tucked deep into the large pockets of her ragged apron, her fingers tightly gripping the silk pouch containing the three thousand high-grade spirit stones Cassian had returned to her. Every single step down felt like a step toward a deep, dark cliff.

Her heart was hammering a frantic rhythm against her ribs, so loud that she could hear the blood rushing through her ears like a roaring river.

Beneath the thin fabric of her dress, the black manticore crest on her collarbone was no longer burning with sharp pain. Instead, it had settled into a heavy, frozen sensation that radiated a faint, pulsing warmth directly into her chest.

It felt exactly like an invisible chain, tightening slightly with every inch she moved closer to the ground floor.

When she reached the bottom of the stairs and stepped into the main room of the tavern, she froze.

*Gasp.*

The tavern was completely unrecognizable. Just a few hours ago, this room had been a noisy, dirty place filled with the smell of roasting animal fat, cheap ale, and the rough shouting of low-tier laborers. Now, it was as silent as a graveyard.

The heavy wooden tables and long benches had been pushed violently against the walls, clearing a wide, straight path from the staircase to the front doors. Standing perfectly upright along both sides of this path were twenty massive warriors.

They were not the low-tier mercenaries who usually frequented the slums. These were Cassian’s personal elite vanguard. Every single one of them was a high-tier beastman, standing over seven feet tall, their massive bodies completely covered in thick, heavy plates of midnight-black armor.

The metal did not reflect the dim light of the tavern; instead, it seemed to absorb it, casting long, twisting shadows across the floorboards.

Their faces were entirely hidden behind terrifying, slitted iron visors shaped like roaring manticores, and their large hands rested on the hilts of massive executioner swords planted firmly between their boots.

The raw, crushing spiritual pressure radiating from these twenty warriors was so intense that the air in the room felt thick and hard to breathe.

Lin Wan’s breath caught in her throat. She felt so incredibly small, so fragile standing in her dirty, ragged dress with her chopped hair. She looked like a stray beggar who had accidentally stumbled into a fortress of gods.

The moment her foot touched the floorboards of the main room, all twenty black-armored warriors moved at the exact same time.

*SLAM!*

With a single, thunderous motion, they struck their right fists against their heavy chest plates, bending their knees and lowering their massive heads in a deep, absolute bow.

The sound of their iron armor colliding echoed through the wooden building like a crack of thunder, making the dust fall from the ceiling beams.

"Greetings to the Master of the Sovereign!" their voices boomed out in perfect unison, a deep, rumbling sound that shook Lin Wan’s very bones.

Lin Wan staggered back a step, her back hitting the wooden railing of the staircase. Her eyes went completely wide with pure, unadulterated shock.

*Gasp!*

’Master of the Sovereign.’

They were bowing to her. These terrifying, high-tier warriors who could destroy an entire city ring by themselves were lowering their heads to a dirty, soot-stained human female. They weren’t looking at her rags or her chopped hair.

They were looking at the faint, purple glow leaking through the collar of her dress—the undeniable mark of Cassian’s absolute ownership.